David Shearer: GCSB Amendment Bill

David Shearer: GCSB Amendment Bill

Labour leader David
Shearer continued to call for an inquiry into the role of
the Government Communications Security Bureau at his weekly
pre-caucus press conference this morning, and said Prime
Minister John Key did not have enough cross-party support to
see the GCSB amendment bill through.

Mr Shearer began
the press conference by denying an accusation from Mr Key
that he had been told not to support the GCSB amendment bill
by Labour deputy leader Grant Robertson.

Mr Shearer said
that the reason Mr Key had said this was because he was
trying to draw attention away from the fact that he did not
have enough cross-party support to see the legislation
pass.

Labour wanted an inquiry into the role of GCSB, and
would support legislation that came out as a result of such
an inquiry, he said

“This is about him [Mr Key]
avoiding embarrassment from Dotcom and from illegal spying.
He has picked up this legislation and he is pushing it
through in a hurry, when he actually needs to do is what
other countries have done and step back and have a full
independent assessment of what we need and then build
legislation from there.”

Mr Shearer said New Zealand's
Five Eyes partners all had independent internal and external
intelligence operations, and an inquiry would give guidance
about how New Zealand should position its own agencies.

The government was already looking to bring SIS and the
GCSB closer together, and the GCSB amendment bill would
allow this to happen more easily, he said.

Mr Shearer
also answered questions about the upcoming Ikaroa-Rāwhiti
by-election and the behavior of fellow Labour MPs Phil Goff
and Trevor Mallard at a recent select committee hearing.

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